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Mocksville Police Employee On Leave After George Floyd Post

Police Lights
Keith Kern, Creative Commons
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https://bit.ly/2CFeh2a

An employee at a North Carolina police department has been placed on administrative leave following a social media post about George Floyd, officials said Thursday.

Screenshots appeared to show that Christy Wikes-Jones, a police records specialist with the Mocksville Police Department, shared a Facebook post depicting Floyd portrayed in a drawing holding a gun in his right hand and his left arm wrapped around the neck of a pregnant woman, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.

According to the newspaper, Wikes-Jones shared the post with the comment suggesting Floyd raped the women. Wikes-Jones' Facebook page could not be found Thursday evening.

The Associated Press reported last month that Floyd – who died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on the Black man's neck for nearly nine minutes – was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon in August 2007. Investigators said he and five other men barged into a woman’s apartment and Floyd pushed a pistol into her abdomen before searching for items to steal. Floyd pleaded guilty in 2009 and was sentenced to five years in prison. Nothing in the report or in court records indicated the woman was pregnant or that she was raped.

The Mocksville Police Department issued a statement regarding the post, saying it did not condone or agree with it, and it would investigate the incident.

The Associated Press is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering, supplying a steady stream of news to its members, international subscribers and commercial customers. AP is neither privately owned nor government-funded; instead, it's a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.
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